Determining the best location for a new or expanding business in an increasingly competitive and global marketplace is challenging. These locations offer a number of advantages when it comes to meeting today’s logistics and supply chain needs.

Small and mid-sized manufacturers lack the scale to ship in full truckloads, creating thousands of separate, inefficient lines of supply—all moving to the same mass retailers. Collaborative distribution reduces the number of trucks on the road and cuts distribution costs.

Implementing material handling automation within a distribution center requires an experienced systems integration, which acts as a matchmaker to ensure the software communicates fully and freely with the facility’s equipment.

The winter of 2013-14 disrupted the intermodal shipping industry in North America, causing service problems and impeding growth. However, intermodal now offers a number of attractive advantages for shippers, particularly as rail operations pour resources into their intermodal efforts to strengthen service and compete with trucking. Sites that specialize in intermodal utilize innovations to streamline the process and apply new resources to make for an increasingly efficient and effective distribution process.

Hiring challenges in the supply chain sector include attracting the best talent, developing leaders, and retaining high performers. To solve these issues, employers must step up and build training programs that instill passion, share purpose, provide clear leadership and promotion tracks, are authentic, and ultimately diminish turnover.

Oregon-based manufacturer Blount International was bleeding money from leaks all across its supply chain. It found that the correct application of the right data management technology provided and maintained by the right partner was the solution to the problem.

Inbound Logistics talks to carriers and third-party logistics (3PL) providers about sure-fire ways to save money on LTL shipments and serves up a list of 18 tips that will help shippers of all types and sizes.

Rising consumer expectations are driving change throughout the supply chain. And there’s no tougher test for meeting increased expectations than Black Friday. The time is now for warehouse managers to examine the three critical success factors in warehouse labor management.

With the growth of e-commerce, retailers have identified a potential opportunity to reduce working capital by thinning inventory at brick-and-mortar stores—opting instead to maintain major portions of inventory at distribution centers upstream.

Ice cream companies have to ensure their products maintain their quality as they travel from the manufacturing plant to distribution center to the retailer, and finally into the consumer’s shopping cart and home. Cold chain management and proper sanitation are key ingredients.

Emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, collaborative robotics, self-driving trucks, drones and the Uberization of deliveries are poised to be disruptive influences on logistics in the coming years.

Supply chain logistics companies view veterans as a crucial pool of potential employees, and consequently they are using a range of methods to recruit and hire former members of the military for their workforces.

Through automated, rules-based wave management and replenishment, American Hotel Register Company was able to eliminate manual sortation and create multiple, tailored options to proactively release orders by type.

If there’s one lesson that we’ve learned from fine bourbon or whiskey, it’s that good things come to those who wait. Distilleries know this better than anyone. But when it’s time to get that product out the door and in the hands of distributors, the last thing a distiller wants to do is wait.

From well-designed redundancies across intermodal shipping methods to creative solutions when the unexpected happens, Georgia’s logistics industry is positioned to help shippers connect, compete, and grow.

East Coast Warehouse & Distribution’s strategic port location brings both advantages and challenges. Its facility keeps supply chains rocking, serving as the crucial first step in importers’ distribution systems in the United States, through port delays and even Superstorm Sandy.

The booming liquor business has added several layers of complexity to the supply chain with the addition of many new product SKUs. Shippers are using technology, data, and collaboration to keep the supply chain moving efficiently.

Investments in pick/put-to-light technology, wearables, robotic AGVs, high-speed conveyors, voice-directed picking, and a warehouse control system equate to an automated, smart, and efficient distribution center.

When Thermo Fisher Scientific wanted to improve worker safety in its bioproducts cold chain warehouse, it developed a novel deli-door solution that reduced the number of pickers in the cold storage and freezer spaces, dramatically improved picking safety and efficiency, and created more product storage space.

It is critical that 3PLs take a hard look at operations to determine areas for cost reduction, productivity and efficiency improvements, and opportunities for new service offerings and revenue streams.

As shippers evaluate existing, merged, or new 3PL providers, they should also be aware of their own processes and approach to vendor relationships and choose partners that best align with their strategies and needs.

Warehouse operations no longer allow for “business as usual” practices. New initiatives and strategic investments in capital improvements will lead to greater returns in productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Investing in the latest materials handling equipment, WMS technology, and physical building improvements will result in a fully integrated distribution center.

Nutrabolt’s rapid growth created several logistics challenges, including processing orders efficiently and quickly; absorbing dramatic swings in order volumes to support promotional campaigns; and providing omni-channel fulfillment through a single warehouse. A third-party logistics partnership with Kane Is Able helped Nutrabolt meet these challenges.

No matter how thoroughly safety training requirements are followed, there are still likely to be gaps in your company’s loading dock safety efforts. Use these tips to better shape safety training plans.

3PLs tout IoT as top disruptive innovation in the supply chain; Hyundai and Accenture team up to design smarter ship; TMS use has tripled over the past decade; new sustainability web platform helps shippers assess key trends and best practices.

Challenging weather and a remote location make delivering freight to and from Alaska a complex operation. To simplify operations, many shippers turn to transportation companies and logistics service providers that have the expertise to make sure freight flows smoothly despite the complexities.

To mark SmartWay's 10th anniversary, several shipper partners share their best tactics for getting the most out of the program... Sourcing and procurement functions have become areas of core incompetency says new survey.

Technology is enabling an unprecedented level of transparency and communication to help shippers and their logistics providers understand each other's operations, and collaborate in ways that were much more difficult in the past.

When a merger required Nature’s Way to consolidate distribution facilities, it called on the services of system supplier The Numina Group for a new design and technologies. Today, the facility successfully distributes products to customers in 50 states, and overseas through five supply chain channels.

Energy companies have responded to the escalating cost of doing business by looking for savings in the indirect material supply chain. As a result, many are struggling to optimize maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) functions.

An order management system from DF Young and Superior Technology helps Cintron Beverage Company boost inventory accuracy, fulfill orders easily and quickly, and track products throughout the supply chain.

Online retailers seeking new sites for DCs and warehouses need the transportation infrastructure to support a constant, rapid-fire flow of shipments – plus a capable workforce, affordable utilities, and business incentives to help them get the most from their investment.

Monitoring the pallet-level temperature of fresh, frozen, and packaged foods allows shippers and transporters to more effectively manage the quality and safety of products as they move through the supply chain, writes Kevin Payne of Intelleflex.

Schwan’s Home Services optimized its distribution network by using a hybrid insourced/outsourced model; and Sun-Maid Growers of California used collaborative distribution to create better economies of scale in its transportation operations.

To preserve working capital and promote flexibility, many companies choose to leverage the capabilities of a third-party-logistics (3PL) provider for carrier spend, facility occupancy, and more, writes John Wagner Jr. of Wagner Logistics.

Shippers want 3PL partners that not only responsively evolve service networks and capabilities to flex with the market, but also can anticipate and be ready to meet future service requirements, writes Ray Greer of BNSF Logistics.

As manufacturers strive to strike the perfect balance between parts delivered and parts consumed in production, technology innovations allow logistics providers to ensure companies receive only the parts they need when they need them, writes John Paugh of Carter Logistics.

By identifying the value-adds that brand and retail shippers want, logistics providers can position their offerings to bring millions in benefits to their customers and make the relationship stick, writes Greg White of Blue Ridge.

Pharmaceuticals manufacturers face special supply chain challenges such as temperature control, security, chain of custody, and regulatory compliance, but successful strategies help deal with these issues.

Many companies, including Kimberly-Clark, Ebro, and USG Corporation, are moving beyond the traditional, transactional shipper-3PL relationship to form collaborative partnerships focused on mutual gain.

Companies are increasingly realizing that supply chain must become a core competency. Adding a supply chain control tower and taking on the fourth-party logistics (4PL) role offers them the ability to accelerate collaboration and achieve higher performance levels.

If shippers use their third-party logistics partners for more than brokerage—not just as tactical providers, but as strategic partners—a whole new world of logistics excellence and accomplishments could open up, writes Inbound Logistics Publisher Keith Biondo.

No longer hauling just fresh produce and other groceries, today’s truck and trailer refrigeration systems also keep other high-value loads at ideal temperatures and humidity levels so they arrive safely at their final destinations, writes Thermo King’s Tom Kampf.

Capable third-party logistics (3PL) providers can help you manage rising logistics costs because they have highly developed processes and critical infrastructures in place, writes Brad Constantini, Comprehensive Logistics.

Responding to our annual Readers' Choice Top 10 3PL Excellence survey, Inbound Logistics readers voted on the best third-party logistics providers and related the ways in which they count on their 3PLs.

Shippers that use only the transactional solutions offered by their 3PL partners are missing the opportunity to benefit from advanced logistics solutions and expertise they helped pay to initiate, implement, and build-out, writes Publisher Keith Biondo.

Colgate took more than four million miles out of its network while handling five percent more cases of product – and even managed to cut logistics costs, sharing the savings with customers and suppliers.

Amazon closes Texas distribution facility over sales tax dispute; Robert Guenther of United Fresh Produce Association comments on FDA Food Safety Modernization Act; U.S. General Services Administration rolls out green guidelines for government suppliers; Crossdocking use is on the rise

Most logistics outsourcers today use an RFQ to select their 3PLs. But that model is outdated and ineffective. A handful of forward-thinking shippers and logistics providers are instead embracing a collaborative outsourcing method, with powerful results.

Logistics service providers are eligible for a range of certifications, such as C-TPAT, SmartWay, FAST, and IATA. But what they must do to qualify, and why should these certifications matter to shippers?

A growing consumer interest in locally grown food is changing the way many food companies source products. Food quality and safety concerns, transportation costs, and local economic development efforts are compelling restaurants, groceries, and wholesalers to engage smaller producers and localize their supply chains.

Retailers publish routing guides to establish rules for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors to follow when fulfilling and shipping orders. Here are the benefits of establishing a routing guide.

Companies that combine the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra with the supply chain wisdom of managing costs and stamping out inefficiencies are developing reverse supply chains that help the Earth, the customer, and the bottom line.